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Plink.
I heard the noise of the little metal capsule landing on the desk on the other side of the wall and nodded, with something that almost approached contentment. The decision to install the pneumatic tubes had been an excellent one. If I’d had to communicate with my secretary in the ordinary way, I would have had to get up, open the door, holler his name and march back to my desk again before continuing to work. Right now, I had saved at least ten precious seconds. Over the last few days, I had been able to save at least three hundred and seventy-one seconds. If I managed to do that every hour of every workday, I would save at least forty-three thousand eight hundred and fifty-five seconds this year.
Or maybe not.
Because my secretary, it seemed, didn’t share my work ethic today. He wasn’t answering my call. Shoving another message into the tube, I pulled the lever.
Plink.
Nothing.
Plink.
Still nothing.
Plink! Plonk! Plink!
I was just about to shove the next message into the tube when I realized this was turning into a senseless waste of perfectly good paper. Cupping my hands around my mouth, I called: ‘Simmons!’
No reply.
Where was the blasted fool? Kicking my chair back, I rose and marched over to the connecting door between our two offices and pushed it open.
Two minutes later I was back in my own office, lifting the mouthpiece that connected it with downstairs.
‘Karim? Get up here! Simmons has vanished!’
Karim marched into my office after only a few moments. Without asking, he continued to Simmons’ office, and I heard rustling and clanking. I waited. The man was good at his job. There was no sense in interfering while he did it.
‘Nothing, Sahib.’ His bushy eyebrows drawn together in a frown, Karim reappeared at the door. ‘No clue to where he’s gone.’
‘Search the building.’
‘Yes, Sahib.’
‘And if the idiot has accidentally locked himself in the archives again, demonstrate to him what I think of time wasters.’
‘With pleasure, Sahib.’
When Karim returned half an hour later, his frown had deepened. ‘I could not find a sign of him anywhere, Sahib. He’s gone.’
‘You mean permanently gone?’
‘Apparently.’ Karim hesitated. ‘When I searched his room just now, I didn’t just not find any clue to his whereabouts - I found nothing at all. No personal possessions, no loose cash, nothing. He cleaned his desk out completely. It seems Mr Simmons decided to leave your employ.’
‘Leave? Why now? He’s worked here for three years.’
‘Maybe your charming personality overwhelmed him, Sahib.’
‘Karim?’
‘Yes, Sahib?’
‘Was that sarcasm?’
‘No, Sahib. Of course not, Sahib. I would never take the liberty, Sahib.’
‘Good.’
